Hooks and other article supports are commonly used in both households, institutions, and industry for a variety of purposes such as hanging pictures, towels, garments, tools, calendars, posters and other articles. Conventional hooks often require forming holes in cabinets, walls, or the like as fasteners such as screws or nails are used for attaching them. Alternatively, hooks may be adhered by adhesive tapes, but tapes that have strong holding power are typically difficult to remove cleanly from the wall without scraping or otherwise damaging the surface of the wall.
Coassigned and copending U.S. patent application U.S. Ser. No. 07/802,061 entitled, "Removable Adhesive Tape", and PCT Internation Application No PCT/US91/09472, to Kreckel et al., disclose a stretch releasing adhesive tape. Those documents are herein expressly incorporated by reference.
Those documents disclose an easily removable, pressure-sensitive adhesive tape comprising a highly extensible, substantially non-recovering backing. The tape is capable of being firmly bonded to a substrate and removed therefrom by being stretched at an angle of no greater than about 35 degrees from the surface of the substrate. A problem associated with this type of tape is that some persons find it difficult to grasp for removal. An uncomfortable amount of finger pressure may be required to grip the tape firmly enough to allow removal.